Explore the vast range of titles available.

Across three experiments ( N = 302), we explored whether people cognitively elaborate humanoid robots as human- or object-like. In doing so, we relied on the inversion paradigm, which is an experimental procedure extensively used by cognitive research to investigate the elaboration of social (vs. non-social) stimuli. Overall, mixed-model analyses revealed that full-bodies of humanoid robots were subjected to the inversion effect (body-inversion effect) and, thus, followed a configural processing similar to that activated for human beings. Such a pattern of finding emerged regardless of the similarity of the considered humanoid robots to human beings. That is, it occurred when considering bodies of humanoid robots with medium (Experiment 1), high and low (Experiment 2) levels of human likeness. Instead, Experiment 3 revealed that only faces of humanoid robots with high (vs. low) levels of human likeness were subjected to the inversion effects and, thus, cognitively anthropomorphized. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings for robotic and psychological research are discussed.

Empathy--putting oneself in another's shoes--has been described as the \"social glue\" that holds society together. This study investigates how exposure to sexist video games can decrease empathy for female violence victims. We hypothesized that playing violent-sexist video games would increase endorsement of masculine beliefs, especially among participants who highly identify with dominant and aggressive male game characters. We also hypothesized that the endorsement of masculine beliefs would reduce empathy toward female violence victims. Participants (N = 154) were randomly assigned to play a violent-sexist game, a violent-only game, or a non-violent game. After gameplay, measures of identification with the game character, traditional masculine beliefs, and empathy for female violence victims were assessed. We found that participants' gender and their identification with the violent male video game character moderated the effects of the exposure to sexist-violent video games on masculine beliefs. Our results supported the prediction that playing violent-sexist video games increases masculine beliefs, which occurred for male (but not female) participants who were highly identified with the game character. Masculine beliefs, in turn, negatively predicted empathic feelings for female violence victims. Overall, our study shows who is most affected by the exposure to sexist-violent video games, and why the effects occur. (200 words).

Cyber-ostracism is an experience that, similar to the ostracism occurring within in-person relatiol contexts, gives rise to negative psychological consequences, leading to negative emotiol reactions, and threatening the basic needs of each individual-belonging, self-esteem, meaningful existence, and control. The present study aimed to explore the possible moderating role of self-monitoring on the impact of cyber-ostracism on people’s emotions and need satisfaction. We employed the Ostracism Online paradigm, a research tool resembling a social media platform, that allows researchers to manipulate the number of likes that participants receive as a cue of cyber-ostracism. A total of 212 participants were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions (Ostracism Online: cyber-ostracism vs. cyber-inclusion). After completing measures related to their social media usage and the self-monitoring scale, participants were exposed to the Ostracism Online paradigm and then were asked to complete measures related to their emotiol reactions and need satisfaction. Results highlighted a different moderating role of self-monitoring on emotions and need satisfaction. Specifically, in the cyber-ostracism condition, participants with higher levels of self-monitoring reported higher levels of negative emotions compared to participants with lower levels of self-monitoring. Differently, we only found an effect of self-monitoring on the control dimension of need satisfaction. In particular, included participants with higher levels of self-monitoring reported higher levels of perceived control compared to included participants with lower levels of self-monitoring. Our findings contribute to expanding our understanding of self-monitoring and its role in moderating the effects of cyber-ostracism that may occur within social media.

Through three studies (N = 306), we alysed the association between physical disgust and implicit biologization – the perception of others as disease organisms. In doing so, we employed an adapted version of the Semantic Misattribution Procedure (SMP). Study 1 found that the higher was the level of physical (vs. moral) disgust that White participants felt towards Black people, the higher was their implicit tendency to biologize this ethnic group. Study 2 and Study 3 experimentally replicated the association between physical disgust and biologization by manipulating physical disgust through vignettes that portrayed a target behaving in a physically (vs. morally vs. non-disgusting) way. Results showed that participants assigned to the physical disgust condition biologized more the target – both implicitly and explicitly – than participants in the moral disgust and non-disgusting condition.Overall, these findings shed light on the biological dehumanization of others and its emotiol roots, by thus paving the way for its prevention.

The present studies aim to expand research on dehumanization in the work domain by exploring the biologization – an unexplored form of dehumanization that involves the perception of others as infected and contagious – of physically tainted workers. By integrating the literature on biologization with that of disgust and physically dirty work, we expected that the biologization of workers would be explained by their dirty work environment and by increased feelings of disgust towards them. In Study 1, we showed that focusing on a dirty work environment (vs. on the person performing the work) increased feelings of disgust towards workers and, in turn, their biologization. Coherently, in Study 2, we found that a physically tainted occupation (vs. baseline condition) increased participants’ feelings of disgust and biological dehumanization towards the worker. In contrast, a non-physically tainted occupation (vs. baseline condition) had no effects on disgust and biologization. The theoretical and practical implications are considered.

In the present work, we explored whether (and when) people cognitively process humanoid robot faces similarly to human faces, i.e., whether they cognitively anthropomorphize them. To investigate this, we conducted three experiments ( N  = 346) that utilized adapted versions of the face-scrambled task. This cognitive paradigm is commonly used to determine whether specific stimuli elicit configural processing, which is typical for human faces, or analytical processing, which is typical for nonhuman stimuli such as objects. Overall, our experiments revealed that robot faces may elicit configural processing (i.e., cognitive anthropomorphism), but this process is influenced by specific factors. Robot faces with high human-likeness are more strongly anthropomorphized than those with low human-likeness (Experiment 1). Additionally, this form of anthropomorphism emerges only when considering a first-order configural processing, but not when considering a second-order configural processing (Experiment 2). However, and most importantly, when the social categorization between humans and robots is lowered, the anthropomorphism of robot faces also emerges when considering a second-order configural processing (Experiment 3). Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed, with a particular focus on the interaction between higher and lower cognitive processes involved in the social perception of humanoid robots.

Guided by the Tripartite Influence Model and Objectification Theory, we examined whether parents’ attention to their children’s appearance was related to higher body shame in girls and boys. In Study 1 (N = 195) and 2 (N = 163), we investigated 7-12-year-old children’s metaperceptions about parents’ attention to their appearance and its association with children’s body shame. In Study 3, we examined the link between parents’ self-reported attention to their children’s appearance and children’s body shame among parent-child triads (N = 70). Results demonstrated that both children’s metaperceptions and fathers’ self-reported attention to children’s appearance were associated with body shame in children. Furthermore, when mothers’ and fathers’ attitudes toward their children were analyzed simultaneously, only fathers’ attention to their children’s appearance was associated with greater body shame in girls and boys. Notably, no gender differences emerged, suggesting that parents’ attention to their children’s appearance was not differentially related to body shame in girls and boys. These results remained significant when controlling for other sources of influence, namely peer and media influence, both of which were found to have a strong association with body shame in children. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.

During intractable conflicts, \"competitive victimhood\" refers to the subjective belief that one's own ingroup has suffered more than the outgroup. Although competitive victimhood is considered an important inhibitor of reconciliation processes, no research has attempted to examine ways of reducing it. The present study aims to fill this gap. Kosovar Albanians students (N = 170) were asked to report their perception of ingroup and outgroup victimhood during the protracted violence between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo. Our findings revealed that frequent and high-quality extended contact with outgroup members and identification with a common ingroup reduced competitive victimhood. The effects of extended contact and common ingroup identification were fully mediated by increased perspective taking and trust toward the outgroup, and by decreased outgroup infrahumanization. The implications of these results for restoring fractured intergroup relations are discussed.

Italian Fascist propaganda was compared with contemporary right-wing material to explore how political propaganda depicts specific target groups in different historical periods. Taking the theory of delegitimization as the theoretical framework, we analyzed visual images concerning despised social groups used by the Fascist regime and current images of contemporary targets of social resentment used by Lega Nord (currently part of the governing coalition). Images of Jewish and Black people published in the Fascist magazine La Difesa della Razza were classified according to eight delegitimizing strategies, as were images of immigrants used on Lega Nord propaganda posters. Although the target group has changed, six of the eight strategies of delegitimization were used in both periods. In most cases, overlap was found in the way target groups were portrayed in the past and in the present. Normal 0 14 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

Recalling the Italian colonial experience elicits the collective emotions of guilt, shame, and ingroup-focused anger. We expected that these emotions would predict different reparation intentions in favor of the colonized populations' descendants. Students and non-students were recruited (N = 152) and asked to rate their emotions of collective guilt, shame, and anger for the violence that their ingroup had perpetrated against colonized people. Results showed that shame affected intentions to provide economic compensation to current inhabitants of the ex-colonies. This relationship was mediated by concerns of damage for the ingroup's image. Anger toward the ingroup predicted intentions to help immigrants from the ex-colonies now living in Italy. Interestingly, empathy toward the outgroup mediated the latter relation. Finally, collective guilt was not reliably associated with any reparation strategy. These findings have implications for theory and for the historical collective memory of Italian colonialism. Adapted from the source document.